The report has received the endorsement of 113 Australian NGOs. We also received a number of requests for individual endorsement from members of the Australian community, including from academics, retired NGO workers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Western Australia.
The report covers key themes of racial discrimination in Australia, including:
• the lack of sufficient legal protections from racial discrimination in Australian law, policy and practice, including the ineffectiveness and, at times, unavailability of remedies for violations;
• the ongoing discriminatory outcomes experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the enjoyment of many civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights;
• the impact of the Northern Territory Intervention on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
• the adverse impacts of laws, policies and practices on asylum seekers, refugees and other non-citizens;
• the various forms of discrimination faced by migrant communities in Australia;
• the impact of Australia's counter-terrorism laws on Somali, Kurd and Muslim communities in Australia; and
• the need for better implementation of Concluding Observations of human rights treaty monitoring bodies and a worrying trend in Australia's response to views of those bodies.
The report also contains concrete recommendations for Australian authorities, which would bring Australia more fully into compliance with its obligations under CERD.
